Welcome to travel.SE. Just as an obvious thought. You'd be responsible for all damages occurred to that vehicle.
–
KarlsonMar 23 '13 at 15:52

2

Have you actually seen such clauses? I lived on an unpaved road for years (it has since been paved) and have rented cars when mine was being repaired. Never have I seen such a clause
–
Kate GregoryMar 23 '13 at 19:20

it mighr be useful to distinguish between "unpaved" roads, aka gravel roads, and "unmaintained" roads, which are far wilder. I would not expect to be able to drive a rental on an unmaintained or "unimproved" road. I would expect to be able to drive on on the graded and maintained road that I and my neighbours lived on for decades.
–
Kate GregoryMar 23 '13 at 20:31

1

SUVs are NOT Off Road capable vehicles. While they'll do better because of their greater ground clearance than say a Mustang or Civic, they're not off roaders. That goes for civilian versions of military vehicles as well, usually. And notice there's a big difference between off road and unpaved road. I've lived on unpaved roads for years, a regular car can drive them if you're a bit careful about the potholes :) Of course some lawyer who's never left the big city may not know that.
–
jwentingMar 27 '13 at 7:24

4 Answers
4

Find a person who has the authority to approve your request and explain what you are trying to do and why. It actually worked for us.

It's important to find somebody who is able to authorise your request. Dealing with someone who is sympathetic but lacks authority will get you nowhere.

Real life example below.

We rented a car in Australia a few years ago - ALL rental companies had similar "no off road" clauses in their contracts. They were generally specific enough that you could probably drive an Australian "outback" road but not take "unformed road" trails down to picnic areas, dams, lookouts etc.

We had our two adult children with us - we wanted to introduce them to a small glimpse of the "real" outback. We decided to visit and stay at the world famous in Australia "Glengarry Hilton" (yeah, right!!!) - down about 50 km of roads that you wouldn't usually call roads near Lightning Ridge.

Some of the agreements said "without written approval".
The endeavour seemed doomed. Non of the counter staff we spoke to had any expectation that such approval could actually be gained. Nor did their supervisors.

Having identified the company that had the car we most wanted I did an internet hunt for company upper management and found a phone number of a State manager. Instant success. Full understanding of what we wanted to do. Good explanation of WHY they had the policy - and a note that roads to picnic sites etc were fine - all they wanted was a road that had a formal description so the breakdown wagon knew where to find you :-).

you pretty well always know you're going to succeed once you get to "how did you get my number?" - it's my favourite marker of a conversation that could, handled properly, go extremely well
–
Kate GregoryMar 25 '13 at 17:14

1

there's of course a difference between "off road" and "unpaved road" :) I've never seen a clause barring use on unpaved roads. Off road use is typically indeed limited unless the vehicle is specifically designed for it (which SUVs, despite their appearance, are not).
–
jwentingMar 27 '13 at 7:21

Well, calling upper management won't scale, and as a non-native speaker I'm not sure that my English skills were up to such a task (I'm talking a lot with English-speaking coworkers, but this is something different...). But thanks for the story and the pictures!
–
oefeApr 1 '13 at 18:31

Long story short you risk voiding any coverage you have on the vehicle, which will make you responsible for any and all damages that may happen. Also most modern SUVs are not designed to be take off road and some don't even offer 4x4 capabilities, so it is very possible that you may not even be able to get to where you're going.

So how do you get there?

There are 4x4 and ATV tours like this one for Grand Canyon. So if there is anything worth seeing your will have tours and if not you're likely to have places to rent similar vehicles.

GPS tracking would tell them where I've been, not where the damage happened. And do they really do that? Are they allowed to keep track of where tenants are? Sounds pretty invasive to privacy...
–
gerritMar 26 '13 at 10:24

@gerrit There is still a debate about the subject of privacy in this case but IANAL. As far as where damage happened in this case you will have hard time proving that it didn't happen off road and if they can prove you have taken the car where it's not supposed to be violation of the Rental Agreement could stick you with damages no matter what.
–
KarlsonMar 26 '13 at 12:43

I don't think any car rental company is going to equipt their cars with GPS just to track whether or not their customers went off-road. Aside from privacy issues (I don't think they're allowed to track my every move) it simply isn't worth the effort. Back to the original question: You may not be able to tell if every damage resulted in an off-road track, however if you break your axle and stay stuck on some kind of dirt road - I think that's definitely a way to determine that you went off-road.
–
perdianMar 26 '13 at 14:31

How can you visit those areas? Simply take the right turn. There are quite a few unpaved roads which are clearly marked - just look for them.

I've personally been on a few unpaved roads in Death Valley, Capitol Reef National Park and Monument Valley. Use common sense: Sometimes the roads are quite easily accessible, even if they're unpaved. Drive slowly, watch for potholes and if you don't feel comfortable: Turn back!

However: If your contract says that you're not allowed to drive on these kinds of roads and you get stuck or have any other kind of accident I suppose it'll get quite costly. But as they say: No risk, no fun! :)

Fined 300 EUR for driving on Non Asphalt Roads. In May 2014, we rented a car via Raddisson Hotels from Fastrent, Tallinn, Estonia. As we were about to drive off the lot, the attendent said be sure not to drive off asphalt roads. We did drive on one well maintained national park sand road. Fastrent charged us 300 EUR for driving off asphalt road. A well hidden line in Conditon 6 of 33 on the back of the contract says "Lesse can drive the car only on the asphalt roads."